Hearing the Music

Got Hope?

We are nearing the end of our 6 week lenten journey, how has that journey been? Maybe you've forgotten about Lent or you simply haven't been paying attention. Maybe you have been paying attention and the growing specter of your mortality clings. Or perhaps the profundity of the debt you owe before a Holy God shocks. Are you hungering for Calvary? For the empty tomb? Do you have hope? 

Hope is one of those "Christian" words that we use often, but, (at least I), rarely stop to think of. What does it mean to hope? It is common to distinguish hope from wishful thinking like, "I hope it doesn't rain today." We remind ourselves that Christian hope is sure, founded on a rock. Over the course of Hebrews (3:6, 6:11, 18, 7:19, 10:23, 11:1) hope is held out as a beacon in the night, a shelter in the midst of a storm. When we get to Hebrews 11:1 we see that hope and faith are closely aligned. Faith is said to be "the assurance of things hoped for". Both hope and faith reach out for a solidity that goes beyond our present circumstances.  

Which brings me to a thought on hope. Marianne Moore in her poem, The Hero, says "hope not being hope / until all ground for hope has / vanished". It makes me wonder about my own experience with hope. Very rarely have my circumstances been so bleak that I could say all grounds for hope had vanished. It does make sense for the preacher in Hebrews to be talking to a tired, bedraggled, subjugated congregation about hope. When all other help has failed, when all forms of exterior comfort have fizzled, and you still believe, you still trust, you still cling -- that is hope. Vaclev Havel, Czech poet, playwright, former president, and dissident instrumental in the Velvet Revolution says, "The kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it is a dimension of the soul; it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons."

I love that. Hope is not a prognostication. It is a dimension of the soul, an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart anchored beyond its horizons. Again, very Hebrews sounding,  "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 6:19–20). Hope is embodied. Hope has a name. Jesus.

So however tough your circumstances might be - job, marriage, sin struggle, loneliness, health, political despondency - Jesus as your hope will not disappoint. After all, as Lent reveals to us, we have been rescued from sin when there was absolutely no other hope.

Photo by Carl Jorgensen on Unsplash

A Grace Trap

The VM clan had the opportunity to take in Les Miserables the musical, playing in Grand Rapids. I am sure that many of you are familiar with the story of Jean Valjean, the convict whose life is transformed when a priest bestows an immense grace upon him during an occasion that he deserved justice. As Valjean's story plays out, we see a man who lives his life in response to this grace and uses his days to bless others.

On the opposite side of Valjean is Javert, an officer of the law, who himself lives rigorously by the law and pursues Valjean through the years. Javert is fixated on Valjean because, though Valjean is transformed, Javert only sees a convict who has broken his parole. As a long story reaches its end, the tables are turned and Valjean has Javert in his power with the task of executing him. But much to Javert's anguish, Valjean does the worse thing possible, he shows him grace. He lets Javert go free, rescuing him from certain death. Javert cannot live with this and sings:

Who is this man? What sort of devil is he, to have me caught in a trap and choose to let me go free? It was his hour at last to put the seal on my fate, wipe out the past and wash me clean off the slate! All it would take was a flick of his knife. Vengeance was his and he gave me back my life! Damned if I'll live in the debt of a thief! Damned if I'll yield at the end of the chase! I am the Law and the Law is not mocked. I'll spit his pity right back in his face! There is nothing on Earth that we share! It is either Valjean or Javert!

How can I now allow this man to hold dominion over me? This desperate man whom I have hunted…He gave me my life. He gave me freedom. I should have perished by his hand. It was his right. It was my right to die as well. Instead I live…but live in Hell! And my thoughts fly apart. Can this man be believed? Shall his sins be forgiven? Shall his crimes be reprieved? And must I now begin to doubt, who never doubted all these years? My heart is stone, and still it trembles! The world I have known is lost in shadow. Is he from heaven or from hell? And does he know…that, granting me my life today, this man has killed me, even so? I am reaching…but I fall. And the stars are black and cold, as I stare into the void of a world that cannot hold. I'll escape now from that world, from the world of Jean Valjean. There is nowhere I can turn, there is no way to go on!

These are his words before taking his own life. The man who had lived by the law could not live under grace.  

In many ways these are the themes that we have been tracing in Hebrews. The grace of a once and for all deliverance through the blood of Jesus Christ or a return to the law, with its objective, yet necessarily repeated sacrifices. In Valjean and Javert we see embodied the two paths on offer. Path one, like Valjean, surrender to grace allowing it to transform you.  Or path two, like Javert, insist on living by law, and keep the idea of grace at bay.  This week we will be looking at chapter 9:23-28 with an emphasis on the once for all sacrifice of Jesus that sets us free both now and into eternity.    

Living by grace is not as easy as it seems and, if truth be told, we all have a little Javert who lives in our hearts. Robert Capon eerily articulates this inner Javert with the prayer of the grace-averse heart: Lord, please restore to us the comfort of merit and demerit. Show us that there is at least something we can do. Tell us that at the end of the day there will at least be one redeeming card of our very own. Lord, if it is not too much to ask, send us to bed with a few shreds of self-respect upon which we can congratulate ourselves. But whatever you do, do not preach grace. Give us something to do, anything; but spare us the indignity of this indiscriminate acceptance.  

May God grant us the grace to behold the face of Jesus and surrender to his grace! So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him (Hebrews 9:28).

Photo by Faris Mohammed on Unsplash

Superhosts

As many of you know, Lisa and I were out of town last week on a much needed vacation. When we travel, we will often go the Airbnb route, opting for local flavor over corporate cleanliness. Of course, not all Airbnbs are created equal. Some are little more than crash pads in not such great areas. One of the things that we have learned when booking is to pay attention to the ratings and look for those dubbed "Superhosts". We have yet to be disappointed with a Superhost. They have the art of hospitality down. Every time you think, "Oh, I wish they had _____", you look, and there it is. They do the little things, like suggesting local restaurants, easily accessible electronics charging, extra blankets scattered around, cold water in the fridge, etc... They go the extra mile by providing local goodies, bottles of wine, packages of tea, freshly baked cookies. They want to make you feel welcome, because they want you to come back and stay again, and tell others about their place!

It got me thinking, churches should strive to be Superhosts as well. Naturally, I started thinking about Christ Church. I suspect that there are many areas that we do wonderfully when it comes to hospitality. I frequently hear how friendly and welcoming Christ Church is. How are we doing in the little things: watching out for the elderly in the crowded lobby, picking up after ourselves when we use an area, allowing others to go first in buffet lines and ensuring there is food for all, etc...? What about going above and beyond: opening our homes to visitors, seeking out those who seem lonely or unattached, inviting folks to sit with us, or giving up our seat on a crowded morning, even if we got there early and deserved that seat? Hospitality matters for Airbnbs and for churches.  

I have two more thoughts before rounding off this week's letter. First, I realize this is not a perfect analogy.  A church is far more than simply an Airbnb where the owners are focused on one thing only, hospitality.  It is a place of education and growth where we come to work on growth, not simply rest. It is a family where things get left on the floor and broken. Speaking of broken, it is a hospital for the wounded and broken. Each week there are those in our midst for whom it is a triumph just to get to church, let alone thinking of serving others. Secondly, we serve because we have been served. I think of those famous words in Isaiah 55:1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Did you hear that? You have nothing, Jesus gives you everything; without money, without price! Jesus is the SuperSuperHost whose capital "H" Hospitality begets our hospitality.